Greetings From Denver

Hello from the Mile High City! My, my, it's been a while, no? Quite honestly, it's been a while since I have been able to catch my breath. Life has been rolling along at full speed for the last month. I've moved to a new city, to a new house, acquired nine (yes, nine) new housemates, started breaking in two separate jobs in new fields, and...a million other things it seems.

As of tomorrow I will have been in Denver for a whole month. That's hard to believe mostly because it feels like it must have been at least 6 months.

In the midst of all this craziness I have been using just about every milligram of free time to sleep or silently stare at a wall to try to regain some strength. I've been doing a horrible job at keeping in touch with everyone, so, well, here we have it--a new blog! It's a bit impersonal, but I don't see myself having time for all the phone calls I'm behind on anytime soon. I'll see what I can do with reviving the Week in Review bit, but for now I'll throw in some tidbits from the past month. I haven't been doing a great job of taking pictures either (and they're all from my phone), but I'll share what I have. (Feel free to throw out questions in the comments if you're curious about anything.)

OK, a month in Denver in review!:

• My house is massive and laid out like a maze. I still forget where the stairs are that go up to the third floor sometimes. I think there are probably some secret passages lingering behind boxes in our basement. 
• A large chunk of my housemates are from the midwest. I'm already afraid of the things I'm going to start saying or how it will affect my accent. Hot dish anyone?
• Friday I learned how to harvest worms and how to put together a worm bin at work. (These are one of the gardening items we sell.) It's probably just as gross as you are imagining it.
• In the mornings I work at an organization called Earthlinks. If you want to learn a little more check it out here: Earthlinks-Colorado.org (You can also click over to the staff page to see their newest staff member!)
• In an effort to live a more sustainable life, to be in solidarity with the poor, and because, well, I am poor, I take the bus or walk everywhere I can. I take the bus in the morning half way to work and walk the rest of the way. At lunch I take two buses and walk a little bit to get to my second job, then I walk home at the end of the day. My attitude might change once it gets cold, but I love these times during the day. My morning walk is peaceful and full of gardens and snapshots of the skyscrapers and mountains. The bustle of downtown Denver at lunch hour is energizing. The walk home is stress relieving. 
• I've seen quite the characters on the bus, too. Sometimes these characters are people I know from work, so we chat for a while. (It's a nice feeling of connectedness.)
• Bus 44 frequently tries to ruin my day. 
• The weather has been fantastic. It got a bit cold for a day or two (high 40s in the morning/evening), but has been sunny and hovering in the 70s for the most part. 
• The sun really does shine constantly here. (Cue Ben Harper's She's Only Happy In the Sun)
• My room in the house came complete with a horrible painted mural. Since the room is pretty tiny it was dominating things. I don't have anywhere enough energy to paint the wall, so I got in a problem-solving mood and tacked up king sized sheets. Not beautiful, but satisfactory. 
• I have seen more rotten food in the last 3 weeks than in the rest of my life combined. (We get a lot of "day old" type donations at the house, and at Earthlinks we get food off a truck that comes by with expired or wilting food the grocery stores threw out. On top of that, many of us get random things from our worksites that they can't give out to their clients anymore (yes, we happily take the things they can't even give away to homeless people!). We try to use all this food on it's last leg, but, I'll be honest: a lot of it get's composted.)
• After this year, I will have cured myself of any desire to ever eat a bagel again. (Matter of fact, I'm pretty much there now.)
• We've actually been eating quite well. We rotate so that 2 different people out of the 10 of us cook and clean each weeknight. There's been a slight learning curve, but I'm pretty impressed with a lot of what we have come up with. 
• One of the perks I love about my afternoon job at the church is that I have an office. A real, downtown office. 
• I'm developing a healthy fear of the answering machine at work with all the sad and desperate stories I find there daily. 
• Monday afternoons at the church are exhausting--but the good kind of exhausting. The kind of exhausting where weekly we feed about 1,200 people in 4 hours. 
• Living between downtown and the huge city park is a great location with a lot of energy. It's also nice to head out to the foothills to the suburb where David lives once a week or so. It's amazing how much different it feels. 
• Actually, every 4 blocks or so Denver feels like a very different city. 

OK, that's plenty of bullet points. Some pictures to finish things up: 

My, um, interesting, whole wall, multilingual mural. Complete with mirrored flowers. Yeah. 

My solution. 

Our first day of work dinner. I helped cook this meal that turned out to be a bit overzealous, but delicious. (Seriously, cooking for 10 people mostly from scratch (because that's cheapest) can turn out to be like cooking a Thanksgiving-esque meal every night.)

Work in the morning

My afternoon office!

After a particularly long and heavy day (and week) I spotted this guy on the back of a wall. I figured no one was looking at it anyway, so I might as well take it...

During our first week or so of orientation we were subsisting on basically nothing but carbs: bagels, rice, pasta, bread.  We hadn't yet received our weekly batch of produce from the farmers market that gives us their unsellables, and we were longing for pretty much anything that came from the ground. That day our generally kind and well meaning director showed up at lunch with a peach. A peach that she ate in front of all of us. Waved it around a bit as she talked. (Oh man, we were all experiencing a range of emotions that were not the most generous!) After relaying this story to David, he showed up later with...giant peaches! Best. Peach. Ever.  

We also found a park throwing an end of summer festival--complete with a hot air balloon "glow" and fireworks. All for free! (It's true. We make poor look exciting.)

And finally, some shots from my morning commute:

Somebody forgot a few important things at the bus stop...

I'm not sure why, but I love this building.

My morning worksite is in a bit of an industrial area that is full of interesting artwork. 

Waiting for good ol' bus 15 (hotbed for interesting and/or homeless people) downtown at lunch. 

The End. 

Week In Review: Stateside!

Hello from Fort Worth! Like I said in the last post--I'm back! This last week has been a bit much for the ole noggin to process. I started the week in Seville, bid my sabbatical goodbye in Barcelona and then airport hopped my way home to Texas. Some observations from the week:

• My accent is back! After countless people telling me that "Your English is really good!" (Um? I'm a native speaker!) and a Canadian telling me she thought I was Norwegian, I was worried that I had done irreparable damage to my American accent (with even less hope for my Southern accent). I heard myself ask for a kn-ah-f (knife) last night, and thought, everything is going to be ok. 
• You know what is the best for this summer heat? Melon (cantaloupe) flavored agua frescas. Go to your nearest mexican restaurant and ask if they have them. 
• Everyone's kids got huge while I was gone!
• Apparently there are a lot of people reading the blog that I didn't know about. Some random people. But I love it! Don't feel shy people--feel free to leave comments, etc. even if I don't know you! 
• (Hi Pete! Hi Pete's dad!)
• In my mind summer food comes off the grill. This week I had bbq Spanish style (sardines), TexMex style (fajitas), Texas style (brisket), and Danny style (smoked chicken and ribs). 
• Opening a closet full of clothes after living out of a backpack for so long is a bit like Christmas. After being home for a few days though...I find myself reaching back into my pile of trip clothes (which is surprising). Slipping my Chacos back on after a few days felt oh-so-good. 
• Reentry is hard on the system. America, as much as I love it, is stressful. 
• I specifically chose some of the regions I traveled in because I could travel through them on public transportation--buses, trains and boats. And then there was the portion of my trip where I hiked 500 miles. After all that, I forgot how much I love driving! 
• After 8 months, I also forgot how much I do not like carrying a cell phone. If you call/text and I don't answer it's probably because the ringer is off and I forget that I have one. Eventually I'll get back to you. 
• I've been home 5 days. That's the max I've been in one place since January. I'm ready to head out...
• I'm going to Abilene tomorrow. I'm excited to see good friends, old roommates and some of my favorite people. I'm excited to eat La Popular burritos. I'm excited to see some horizon. But also, I'm just excited to be going somewhere. 
• You have some good reentry tips? Send them my way!
• I started looking at job postings this week. Anyone out there want to hire me? I swear I've got lots of marketable skills, like...talking to random strangers who end up being excons, walking long distances, wearing scarves...
• Oh, I'm also really good at eating flan. My next project is to dominate flan making. 

OK, that's about it. It's been great seeing so many of you this week!  Pictures below: 

Melon agua fresca--go get yourself one!

Picasso isn't Spain's only artist: Maica went all out on my last lunch in Seville

Although I have learned to love to eat it, I don't think I will ever get over the fact that Spanish ham comes with the hoof still attached

Maica and I performed a rescue operation on an abandoned ficus one afternoon. It was not too unlike problem-solving-taping up my ankle on the Camino: 

Sardines grilled up by Juanma. I used to be scared of these, but after they patiently explained to me how to eat them I found them to be pretty tasty!

My last meal in Barcelona: A goodbye Spain supper of calamaris and tinto de verano...

And of course flan

The Swiss Alps

Week In Review Sabbatical Style: Albania!

I know. I have been a really bad blogger lately. I haven't exactly been busy but my days have been full. A lot of this stems from the fact that I have been in hostel dorms all week, which means there are always lots of people around, which means that I have been doing a lot of what I do best--talking to random strangers.

Today is Sunday though, so I will set myself down and deprive you no longer--here is your Week In Review:

• Where was I this week? I've been in Albania since last Sunday. I spent the first part of the week in Tirana, the capital, took a day trip to Kruja, moved on to the city of Berat and am now in Vlore on the coast. 
• The bus ride from Berat to Vlora this morning seemed like it would be straightforward. There were no connections, but there was also no air-conditioning and no window for me to open. With the heat index over 100 degrees it was already pretty miserable, but when the bus refused to start back up after stoping to drop off a passenger it definitely got worse. We sweated it out by the side of the road waiting when finally someone came along and towed the bus for a bit until it started up again. 
• I've decided that Albania is the Nicaragua of the Balkans. 
• After sweating my way from the hostel to the bus station in Berat, sweating 2.5 hours on the bus and then sweating through the streets of Vlore with my pack, I was doing my best to hold it together and not pass out. When the hotel I planned to stay at didn't appear I just decided to splurge and stay at a nice one--which has...air-conditioning!
• Walking around the castle ruins of Berat I somehow ended up under the care of a local who became my tour guide and photographer. He commandeered my camera and made me pose for pictures everywhere. He seemed to be enjoying himself so much (he was picking flowers for props and climbing towers and what not) that I figured, why not?
• Ice cream cone with 2 flavors of homemade ice cream--20 cents!
• The town of Kruja has put up a statue of George W. Bush. The lady next to me on the bus told the driver we were Americans and made sure he went by it. 
• Albanians love Americans. 
• I love Albanians. 
• The neighbors of my castle "tour guide" gifted me with a big feather. OK. 
• I went to make some calls this week, but only ended up getting to make one to my dad. He suggested I change my flight and keep traveling. My mom agreed. Do mom and dad really know best? Tempting...
• An American owned restaurant in Tirana (Stephan's Center) had a 4th of July BBQ. They had the best burgers I have had since probably before I left for Brussels last September. Impossibly, they also had Dr. Peppers! I came back the next day and pressed my luck to try the Mexican food. The quesadillas? A total win. 
• The best thing about my hostel in Tirana? They had a big, fluffy puppy. After seeing all the strays on the street and being tempted by their cuteness (but not tempted enough to touch--a fellow traveler had to get a rabies shot in Bulgaria!) it was nice to play and snuggle with a pet.
• I have been on a mission to learn to like olives on this trip. I've had somewhat mixed results, but I am happy to report that I actually enjoyed the olives on my vegetarian pizza last night.  
• I gave recommendations for Texas country to a British traveler in my hostel in Berat. I'm pretty sure just thinking about it made my accent a little bit stronger. There might be hope for me sounding like Texan (American? Native English speaker?) again. 
• Its surprising how many conversations I have had in Albanian/Italian/hand gestures/pictures this last week. 
• When chatting with some grandpas in the fruit market we discovered that what we thought were cantaloupes tasted nothing like cantaloupe. He cut open another melon that was green on the inside. The green one ended up tasting identical to cantaloupe. I bought them both. 
• OH! I also found fresh okra at the market! I impulse bought a quarter kilo of them. I channelled my inner southern woman, dredged them in flour and fried them up. The hostel hotplate was pretty pathetic, but they were tasty. 
• The air-conditioning in my hotel room right now is making me such a happy camper.  
• It's too hot to do much right now, so if you are lucky I'll get up a couple more blogs--check back later. 

OK, friends. That's the week in review. I'll see you in just a few weeks...well, that is unless I decide to take my parents' advice! Some photos below: 

Hello Tirana!

She-ra (yes, named after the He-man character)

"Chuck Norris is coming!" 

(Best graffiti ever?)

Which is which? The green one is the cantaloupe 

Market in Kruja

Kastle in Kruja

Berat: the Town of a Thousand Windows

I might or might not have actually started singing the "purple mountain majesty" bit of America the Beautiful at this sight

My fearless local/tour guide/photographer

Home

It's always good to be home after you have been gone for a while. There's all the things you have been missing, along with all the things you missed without ever realizing it. It was good to see family, especially my niece and nephew, and it was great to see my church family yesterday. It was good to bask in the sunshine (even if it wasn't 72 like I was hoping for). It was great to go without socks for the first time in 3 months. Nice to walk on carpet.

It was great to drive again, and to laugh with my best friend. And, of course, it was good to eat all the nice things Texas has to offer: a big salad with ranch dressing, fajitas still sizzling on the plate, and the traditional after church lunch of roast with all the fixings (Squash casserole? Fried okra? Oh yes.)

A few other things:

Dr. Pepper

Folgers!

With powdered creamer!

Mmm, and my mom even made homemade biscuits and sausage gravy. 

Needless to say, it is good to be home. Today I am headed out to Abilene to make sure everything is in order for graduation on Saturday. And of course, to take in even more of the things I have been missing!

You know what I miss?

Well mostly all you lovely people. But other than that?

I really just want a big mug of crappy drip coffee. I mean I've had cafe au lait, and cappuccinos. Every day I drink what more or less amounts to espresso from the fancy coffee machine in the kitchen. I've even had Starbucks once. But really, I just want American coffee. Not even an "Americano." No, I want a big ceramic mug of Folgers from my 1995 model Mr. Coffee with powdered creamer and a couple spoonfuls of white sugar.

Nothing fancy here folks.

I'd even take it out of one of those little styrofoam cups from Logsdon. (Yes, I know. I killed the universe with those little cups when I could have used a mug. But I saw way too many people not wash those mugs properly. Yep, I said it.)

Anyway, there is no point to this entry besides that. So enjoy a cup of coffee for me.